Call for Proposal: Baseline Survey for Passing and Supporting: Building Tactics for Community Mental Health Provision & Care

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1.0 Introduction
Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO), Zomba Mental Hospital and Tackle Africa from United Kingdom has entered into partnership for a project called Passing and Supporting: Building Tactics for Community Mental Health Provision and Care financed by Comic relief in the United Kingdom. The project overall objective is to increase access to mental health care services among Malawians and promote social integration of the persons with (and with histories) of mental disorders. YONECO and its partners will facilitate capacity building of community mental service providers in order to:
a) Increase access to mental health care and support for poor and marginalized communities
b) Institutionalize user-led structures to advocate and facilitate community-level mental health services
c) Enhance economic integration for people with mental disorders by reducing stigma and discrimination
The project will be implemented in selected health centres and communities the following YONECO operational districts: Zomba, Lilongwe and Nkhota Kota.

2.0 Purpose of the Baseline Study
The baseline survey will seek to establish baseline (benchmark) information for subsequent measure of comparison to demonstrate the project’s success in achieving the stated goals and objectives; provide the framework for monitoring the program performance; provide basis for designing and developing advocacy plans in the impact districts and analyze relevant stakeholders involved in the advocacy activities with likelihood of fundamental role in this project.

3.0 Objectives of the Baseline Study
The project specific objectives include:
• To assess the current capacity of stakeholders and beneficiaries of the project in targeted district to support people with mental health disorders, their families and relations in order to improve the care and support for the people with mental health disorders at community, district and national levels in Malawi;
• To identify the existence of any existing training programmes and materials for use in building capacity of the community mental health care givers and district health facility staff;
• Assess the feasibility of the existing structures for identifying (active/passive), treatment and referral of mentally ill individuals.
• Assess the level of community participation in the care of the mentally ill patients
• Establish why there is Low service use, hindered progress towards recovery and system problems over mental health: the mental health literacy of the communities that we will be dealing with
• To identify the opportunities of using sports in particular football drills in managing mental health
• To assess the existence of the community level mental health user groups and their effectiveness in the management of mental health disorders and referral structures in the districts and health facilities
• To establish opportunities, vulnerabilities, capacities and resources on mental health care management at community, health facility and district levels in the operational districts
• To establish the number of mental health educators (MHEs), caregivers and HSAs trained, number of community mental health (CMH) service access points/systems established and number of people accessing mental health care through community-level and home based care stings (HBC) systems.
• To establish the number of existing mental health user groups, number of district mental health associations and number of family members accessing support on mental health
• To identify the common mental health issues in the selected communities, their causes, the extent and key populations afflicted
• To assess the community understanding and attitudes towards community health and what needs to be done to improve the attitudes
• To identify the existence and capacity of livelihood and individual development programme for people with mental disorders, number of people trained in financial literacy to support mentally challenged persons and self-help groups that are established to support mental ill persons

4.0 Expected Outcomes and Outputs
The expected outcomes and outputs of the survey are:
(a) A report analysing the capacity of the various structures and other service providers at the district and health centres in relation to mental health services (prevention, care and support), advocacy and other capacity building activities at district levels
(b) Clear benchmark for monitoring and evaluation activities for the implementation of the activities in this three year project.

5.0 Duration
The survey should be should be concluded by April 15, 2018.

6.0 Request for Proposals
YONECO therefore requests proposals conduct the baseline survey. The Consultant must have a masters in health or development work with 5 years’ experience in conducting such studies. The deadline for the proposals is March 10, 2018. The technical and financial proposals should detail how the consultant intends to conduct the survey and methodologies that will be used. Details proposals should be submitted to: